BOSTON — State health officials have chosen 20 companies to operate medical marijuana dispensaries around the state — including two in Worcester County — and expect the first of them to open late this summer.

After a lengthy application process, Department of Public Health officials Friday approved applications for a dispensary and a separate growing facility in Worcester by Good Chemistry of Massachusetts Inc.

That company has operated a marijuana dispensary in Denver, Colo., since 2009 and also operates the Colorado-based company Mountain Medicine, that produces edible marijuana products.

Also approved was a dispensary in Milford proposed by Bay State Relief, headed by Armand Riendeau, that is expected to open in September with a growing facility and dispensary at 13 Commercial Way in Milford.

Jaime Lewis, chief operating officer of Good Chemistry, said the company will operate its Worcester dispensary at 9 Harrison St. and also plans to build and operate a cultivation facility in Worcester. The 22,000-square-foot cultivation facility, at 6 Pullman St., Worcester, will grow and process marijuana for the Worcester dispensary and for the dispensary the company was approved to operate at 364-368 Boylston St. in Boston.

“The dispensaries will just be dispensaries. They will get prepackaged units delivered to them and all packaging, production and cultivation will take place at a separate facility,” in Worcester, Ms. Lewis said

“Personally I am just really excited for Massachusetts and for the patients who are about to have access to medical marijuana if they choose to,” Ms. Lewis said in a telephone interview from Denver.

She said the company expects to open the Worcester dispensary later this year, possibly around December.

She said it will not have any signs advertising it as a marijuana dispensary, and with frosted glass windows, it will probably look more like a medical office than a retail outlet or typical storefront.

It will be on the ground level in a large brick building that runs between Harding and Green streets, not far from Kelley Square. The 3,000-square-foot site of the proposed dispensary is currently occupied by the Salsa Storm Dance Studio and abuts a consignment shop. It is being leased from Leonard J. Lorusso.

“Our next step is to get the cultivation off the ground,” Ms. Lewis said. Good Chemistry will seek city permits for the cultivation facility and once it is equipped, it will take several months to grow marijuana for initial inventories at the Worcester and Boston dispensaries. She said the company spent about $1.2 million building its cultivation plant in Denver.

Ms. Lewis said the company's application for the Worcester facilities was supported with letters from Worcester Mayor Joseph M. Petty and former City Manager Michael V. O'Brien, both of whom did not object to the plans. In its application, it said it expected to have $3.9 million in revenue in the first year and expenses of $3.5 million.

At the Denver dispensary, medical marijuana costs about $25 for a one-eighth ounce package.

Under the Massachusetts program, discounted prices could be charged in hardship cases for people whose incomes are below the poverty level, as provided in the state program guidelines.

DPH was allowed by law to license up to 35 dispensaries statewide.

Officials said eight other proposed dispensaries that were not approved will be allowed to propose sites in Berkshire, Franklin, Dukes and Nantucket counties, where no dispensaries were approved in the latest round.

The approvals came from a group of 100 applicants, including 13 for Worcester County, that made it to the final phase of a licensing review. The reviews included background checks, application quality, site appropriateness, geographic distribution, local support, and the applicant's ability to meet the overall health needs of registered patients while ensuring public safety

“We are pleased to announce that qualified patients will soon have full access to marijuana for medical use in Massachusetts,” said Karen van Unen, state medical marijuana program executive director who made the final approvals. “Only dispensaries with the highest quality applications were selected to be a part of this new industry, which will create hundreds of jobs while maintaining community safety.”

Ms. van Unen said the state expects from 120,000 to 130,000 patients will begin using the dispensaries in the first year of operation. She said the state is initially expecting about 2 percent of residents statewide will eventually use the dispensaries.

In Milford, the dispensary and cultivation facility will be in the same location, at a 25,000-square-foot leased facility near Interstate-495. Mr. Riendeau is a registered nurse and registered respiratory therapist who is a former chairman of the Board of Registration and Licensure for Respiratory Care, according to the company's application.

It expects to open Sept. 1 and have 15,000 patients after three years.

In Massachusetts, patients must obtain a recommendation for marijuana use from a doctor and the DPH will use an internet or web-based certification system to track the patients and the dispensaries they are utilizing.

Law enforcement agencies will have access to a registry of users that will be maintained by DPH. Officials said some dispensaries will offer home delivery.

All the approved applicants are nonprofit entities and will be responsible for seed-to-sale control of the business, including operation of a dispensary and a secure cultivation facility, according to DPH officials.

It took nearly a year to review the applications in a two-step process that culminated in numerical scoring of each by a seven-member board made up of public health, police and medical representatives.

More than 100 cities and towns adopted new zoning restrictions or moratoriums governing the siting of dispensaries over the last year.

In Worcester, the City Council approved a zoning ordinance to allow marijuana dispensaries with certain buffers and special permit controls in areas of the city zoned Business General, Manufacturing General, Manufacturing Limited and Institutional-Hospital. Milford also adopted a zoning law allowing medical marijuana in commercial zones.

Good Chemistry lost a bid for a license in Salem in Essex County but was invited to seek a license in the counties that were not awarded licenses.

Patriot Care Corp., which had proposed a dispensary for Worcester, was also among those given the go-ahead to seek an alternative location in one of four counties without an approved dispensary.

Former Worcester County Sheriff Guy W. Glodis was part of a management team that attempted to gain a license for a facility in Revere. That application, by Boston Wellness Associates, was not approved by DPH.

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